Today was enjoyable meeting the elephants at Elephant Nature Park. We first fed the elephants, watermelons. Somehow I wish there were more watermelons in the basket because I wanted to continue to feed the elephants. To understand more of the purpose of the Elephant Nature Park, we watch a documentary. We were shown the rules of a safe elephant interaction. We were introduced to the lady who started the Elephant Nature Park and her inspirations in doing so.
What was more awesome was when we got some buckets and some banana to feed and bathe the elephants in the river. For the first few minutes we actually bathed the elephant and pet them a few times. But for the rest of the time, we were splashing each other with water, sneaking in a few splashes towards the elephant. We were all laughing during the whole thing.
We got a tour of the Nature Park next. We met a few other elephants and their current state after being purchased by ELP following a lifetime of abuse and work. We also got to see how they are recovering, and we got to see where they weigh the elephants to keep them from being overweight and getting health issues. I feel bad how much abuse the elephants had to endure. I am happy that there are organizations that want to save these majestic animals from lives of abuse and torture. I feel privileged to have the knowledge I now have and hope to be apart of keeping elephants safe.
-Student 1
Today I enjoyed the trip because we got to see elephants. Then we went to watch a documentary about how the elephants were treated before coming to Elephant Nature Park. Elephants are very huge and wonderful but used to be trained like a slave. After we watched the documentary we went to bathe the elephants. After that we saw some baby elephants. Our guide said that one of the elephant love to chase people down. Later, we walk around the national elephant park we saw Kabu the elephants, the guide said that Kabu has a broken leg from a log that was rolling down a hill and hit her leg. I was sad when I heard Kabu’s story and how she was treated. It was amazing to see how the elephants are treated at Elephant Nature Park, while other elephants are still being treated poorly. Now they are treated with respect, love and freedoms.
-Student 2
Today was less active than some of our days this week. We left the houseboat and went to Elephant Nature Park. There we watched a documentary and learned that abusing elephants is horrible. The best part of our visit was washing the elephants in the river to cool them down. My favorite part was when the elephants started running away so we began to splash water at each other. I was so wet since everyone started teaming up on me. They tried to make me fall in the water and I did… twice. It was freezing cold! I decided to get revenge on them so I splashed the water back. It was epic.
-Student 3